In this revised edition of a volume originally published in 1989, Lawrence Broer extends his comprehensive critique of the body of writing by Kurt Vonnegut. Broer offers a broad psychoanalytic study of Vonnegut’s works from Player Piano to Hocus Pocus, taking a decisively new approach to the work of one of America’s most important, yet often misinterpreted writers. A compelling and original analysis, Sanity Plea, explores how Vonnegut incorporates his personal experiences into an art that is not defeatist, but rather creatively therapeutic and life-affirming.
PrefaceAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: Madness in a Modern ModeThe StrugglePlayer Piano: A Looney Tune for the MassesSirens of Titan: Though This Be Madness, Yet There Is Method in ItMother Night: Nations of LunaticsCat's Cradle: Jonah and the WhaleGod Bless You, Mr. Rosewater: The Saga of Vonnegut's Sanest LunaticSlaughterhouse-Five: Pilgrim's ProgressBreakfast of Champions: Spiritual CrossroadsResolution: The Second Fifty YearsSlapstick: The Meaning of the Dizygotic TwinsJailbird: The Madness of RAMJACDeadeye Dick: The Resolution of Vonnegut's Creative SchizophreniaGalápagos: Oedipus at GalápagosBluebeard: Redemption and the Unwavering LightHartke's Hearing: Vonnegut's Heroes on TrialNotesSelected BibliographyIndex
Lawrence R. Broer is Professor of English at the University of South Florida.
